During the 2005 All-Star game, a transformer decided it was going to blow on my block, and I was without power tonight for several hours. It didn’t occur to me until right before the power was restored that I could have slapped on the radio, I think the game was on ESPN radio. That really bugged me, as I couldn’t see the game. When the power went out, the score was 3-0, and Mark Teixeira had more or less just popped out to second for his second at bat. I figured that was probably it for him anyway, two at bats is pretty decent in the All-Star game. When the power came back on, the game was over, and while there was a little more I could have watched, I had already seen the score, so I decided not to bother. I probably should have watched it, as I had Mark Teixeira’s home run on the TiVo.
I always watch the player introductions – that’s one of my favourite moments of an All-Star game (the one in Boston from 99 was the best I’d ever seen – Teddy Baseball’s appearance with Tony Gwynn brought tears to my eyes). For many years growing up (in Philly), I loved watching the All Star intros. I always got really excited at seeing “my guys” on the field – especially during the lean years when they played like crap, it was always exciting to me to see “my guy”. And that’s the reason I never want to get rid of the rule regarding every team has to have a representative. I know there’s a lot of call to remove that, but I think it needs to be there. The reason is that if a kid in Tampa Bay or Kansas City wants to watch the All-Star game, he should at least be able to go “Hey, that’s my guy!”. I know that feeling terribly well, and with the game having an image problem with the youth of America, I think we need to do things to appeal to them. Granted, I admit, it’s a very minor thing, but I loved that “my guys” feeling as a kid, and I don’t want to take that away. Hell, I’m 40, and I still get off on seeing Texas Ranger players there. It’s been better the last few years when we’ve sent 4 or 5 guys, but when we sent just one – “Hey, look there’s Pudge!” I really hope that doesn’t get taken away from me. Sure, it’s an imperfect system, and I’d say at least one or two really deserving players get shafted, but I don’t want to lose this.
Speaking of player introductions, I didn’t think Kenny Rogers got booed anywhere near the level I expected him to. There was a bit in the player intros, but I expected more than that. I will say that the replays of it I saw later on ESPNNews seemed like the booing was louder than it was originally – anyone else notice that? Due to the power outage, I didn’t get to see any of Kenny’s appearance in the game (nor did I see Soriano or Mike Young, either). I see from the news reports that he was booed coming on, booed when he gave up a home run, and booed again when he left the field. Now given the immaturity of the actions that got him here in the first place, I feel odd saying this, but… it seemed pretty good of him to go take his lumps, and particularly the quote I saw about the booing where he said that “They can say what they need to, that’s fine”. Hopefully this goes away after he comes back from suspension, but I tend to doubt it will, as national press loves a story like that.
I’d love to say I had a good time watching the game, but I didn’t, as I only saw a few innings, and then sat in darkness. Still, it was nice to see the Rangers have a good showing in terms of number of players again. Last year it was 5. This year it’s 4. All good.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.